My front yard is too shady for grass. Tried several times. It would do OK for a while but then die. For a long time the

whole yard was covered in liriope but a neighbor said he saw a snake so that was dug up, given away, etc. Last fall I had the yard tilled, smoothed out and covered in tree mulch. I separated some hostas from another part of the yard and planted some in the front yard. Bought an Illicium, some azaleas (already had several), a fragrant olive, some autumn ferns, some plantain lilies (I was told they're hosts but they look different from the ones I had), some heucheras and an iron plant and divided it into three separate plants. Put E.B. Stone fertilizer in each hole as I planted. Fingers are crossed about how this will look when the hostas come up since I had to imagine a lot of it. But the question is, should I add addl fertilizer now, wait until things really start growing, or what?

It sounds like it will be lovely, and yes now is a great time to go ahead and fertilize your plants. I don't think it is going to damage them from late frosts at this point.
I don't want to be the barer of bad news, though I have to say that your new landscape will not really be less attractive to the snakes than the Liriope.

I know I'll probably never convince you, Louise, but most small snakes are highly desirable things to have in your garden and they no more want to see you than you want to see them. For one thing, they'll devour the slugs that will be hungrily eyeing the hostas you just transplanted.

I actually do understand that snakes are good guys, but I have an unreasonable fear of them. BUT it's way better than it used to be. In the far back past, I couldn't even look at photos of them and certainly not anything on TV about them. When I saw the very small one in my yard years ago, I actually made sure my dogs got back inside the house before they saw it and killed it. :-)

Louise, I must ask...how did your neighbor feel about your liriope yard?LOL... And I agree with you, only good snake is a dead one. I've already wacked a small one this season. Sounds like you should have beautiful results with the new landscape...just keep your "wacking" tool of choice handy.

I really don't want to kill the snakes -- I'd be too afraid to try it, anyway -- :-(( but it would be nice if they'd live somewhere else. :-) As to the liriope, I never heard anything from neighbors except for only one time someone's child suggested I plant grass instead. Of course, I'm sure the child's parent either had commented or simply told the child to tell me to plant grass.

Would love to see the "after" picture. Sounds like you've done a lot of work. p.s. I hate snakes too. Had a 3 foot black snake chase after a lizard in my carport. Don't know who was more scared, me or the lizard!

@Louise Surprisingly both of us got away :) And let me tell you, I didn't realize that snakes could move that fast. Shocked me. Never been that close before and hope never again. Ran over one with a rider mower once and I still jumped. Just call me hopeless when it comes to snakes.